Attention

Saturday, June 11, 2016

Target’s CEO Brian Cornell refused to change course when confronted this week by shareholders who are alarmed by his expensive push for a transgender, mixed-sex changing-room policy that has helped wipe out almost 20 percent of the company’s value.

Cornell told the annual meeting of investors that the company intend to stick with the April 19 transgender policy — which requires its customers to use mixed-sex changing rooms and bathrooms — and he even insisted there has been no financial repercussions, despite a $10 billion Wall Street loss in the months since the policy was announced.

The CEO declined to answer questions over the pro-transgender policy posed by other investors.

Cornell was also asked if the company had conducted a cost-benefit analysis of the pro-transgender policy before issuing it. The CEO didn’t answer this question either.

Democrats like to pretend they're for common sense gun control. But every once in a while, they let the truth slip: they don't want anyone to own a gun at all. As the Daily Caller notes:

A member of the Democratic National Committee’s 15-person platform drafting committee said during a public meeting on Wednesday that she does not believe that “anyone should have a gun.”

Bonnie Schaefer, a former retail executive and a progressive philanthropist, said that more should be done to combat gun violence in addition to “just keeping the guns out of the hands of mentally ill people and criminals.”“I really don’t personally think anyone should have a gun,” she said.

“That’s just my own philosophy. Nothing is ever solved when you have a gun in your hand except the worst possible scenario.”

"Nothing is solved." Tell that to a single mother who finds herself the victim of a home invasion, or an elderly person who's a target for dangerous predators. For good people looking to defend themselves, a gun solves a lot of problems.

In what is potentially one of the most explosive changes in the internet era, FBI Director James B. Coney is lobbying Congress to amend the surveillance law to give the FBI authority to have access to a person’s internet browsing history without a warrant in terrorism and spy cases. Meanwhile, Facebook, Google and Yahoo have sent a joint letter to Congress saying surveillance laws do NOT apply to web browsing records.

However, breach protection expert Gary Miliefsky, co-founder and CEO of SnoopWall, Inc. Gary Miliefsky, speaking at yesterday’s 2016 Information Security Summit in Boston on the Apple vs. the FBI case, said “If the FBI wins, it destroys the 4th Amendment and puts the 1stAmendment seriously in danger.”

Gary Miliefsky is the co-founder and CEO of SnoopWall, Inc. and is a breach prevention expert who has appeared on Good Morning America, the Today Show, CNN, FOX New, CTV and network programming across North America. Snoopwall, Inc. is ranked as the top mobile device security company by Cybersecurity 500 and one of the top 50 Most Valuable Tech Companies in Insight Success.

One of the more underreported elements of this campaign cycle has been Hillary Clinton's disastrous attempt to humanize herself via social media. Admittedly, this is a difficult task. For all of Clinton's perceived strengths, she evinces a total lack of humanity. She's robotic and cold. Her laughter is so forced as to sound maniacal. Former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan has noted that when Clinton wants to emphasize an applause line her voice becomes "loud, flat, and harassing to the ear." In short, making someone like this relatable to voters is no easy task.

Still, her staff has tried EVERYTHING. Last week it got so bad that they quit on Hillary being Hillary, and had Hillary be SNL's Kate McKinnon pretending to be Hillary pretending to be relatable:

Now that Hillary Clinton has mathematically clinched the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, the leader of the party and current White House occupant, President Barack Obama has formally endorsed her.

That’s not unusual.

What is unusual is this is the first time a sitting president has endorsed someone facing possible federal indictment, and with whom the decision to indict could ultimately rests.

That appears to be a conflict of interest, on that obstructs justice.

Fox News Channel’s James Rosen took those concerns directly to the White House spokesman Josh Earnest.

ROSEN: “I wonder if you could address for us the potential conflict of interest that might exist when the President of the United States––the head of the executive branch––is openly saying I want this woman to succeed me in the Oval Office and you have other employees of the executive branch -- career prosecutors, FBI agents --working this case. Isn’t there some conflict there?”

EARNEST: “James, there is not...he knows the people conducting the investigation will not be swayed by political forces.”

That’s true. The FBI agents working the case likely won’t stand down because the President endorsed her.

The problem is their hard work will be for nothing if they recommend an indictment and the politically craven Obama refuses it, because he’s endorsed the accused.

A delegation of leading senators are seeking to stop the Obama administration from providing some health insurers with a $2.5 billion taxpayer-funded bailout under a provision in the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, according to congressional communication exclusively obtained by theWashington Free Beacon.

The senators are petitioning their colleagues on key committees to ensure that U.S. taxpayers will not have to foot the bill for excess costs incurred by insurance companies selling low-cost coverage under the Obamacare program, according to the letter, which lambasts the healthcare program for burdening middle- and lower-class families.

Under this provision, the federal government compensates insurance companies if they wind up with larger costs as a result of selling cheap insurance policies to unhealthy individuals under Obamacare.

The senators are seeking to get language in the fiscal year 2017 budget that would ensure that the risk corridor program remains budget neutral amid attempts by the Obama administration to use some $2.5 billion in taxpayer funds to bailout insurers.

The typical U.S. household headed by a person age 65 or older has a net worth 47 times greater than a household headed by someone under 35, according to an analysis of census data released Monday.

They like to refer to us as senior citizens, old fogies, geezers, and in some cases dinosaurs. Some of us are "Baby Boomers" getting ready to retire. Others have been retired for some time. We walk a little slower these days and our eyes and hearing are not what they once were. We worked hard, raised our children, worshiped our God and have grown old together.Yes, we are the ones some refer to as being over the hill, and that is probably true. But before writing us off completely, there are a few things that need to be taken into consideration.

In school we studied English, history, math, and science, which enabled us to lead America into the technological age. Most of us remember what outhouses were, many of us with firsthand experience. We remember the days of telephone party-lines, 25 cent gasoline, and milk and ice being delivered to our homes. For those of you who don't know what an icebox is, today they are electric and referred to as refrigerators. A few even remember when cars were started with a crank. Yes, we lived those days.

We are probably considered old fashioned and outdated by many. But there are a few things you need to remember before completely writing us off. We won World War II, fought in Korea and Viet-Nam. We can quote The Pledge of Allegiance, and know where to place our hand while doing so. We wore the uniform of our country with pride and lost many friends on the battlefield. We didn't fight for the Socialist States of America; we fought for the "Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave." We wore different uniforms but carried the same flag.

We know the words to the Star Spangled Banner, America the Beautiful by heart, and you may even see some tears running down our cheeks as we sing. We have lived what many of you have only read in history books and we feel no obligation to apologize to anyone for America .

Yes, we are old and slow these days but rest assured, we have at least one good fight left in us. We have loved this country, fought for it, and died for it, and now we are going to save it. It is our country and nobody is going to take it away from us. We took oaths to defend America against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and that is an oath we plan to keep. There are those who want to destroy this land we love but, like our founders, there is no way we are going to remain silent.

It was mostly the young people of this nation who elected Obama and the Democratic Congress. You fell for the "Hope and Change" which in reality was nothing but "Hype and Lies." You youngsters have tasted socialism and seen evil face to face, and have found you don't like it after all. You make a lot of noise, but most are all too interested in their careers or "Climbing the Social Ladder" to be involved in such mundane things as patriotism and voting. Many of those who fell for the "Great Lie" in 2008 are now having buyer's remorse. With all the education we gave you, you didn't have sense enough to see through the lies and instead drank the 'Kool-Aid.' Now you're paying the price and complaining about it; no jobs, lost mortgages, higher taxes, and less freedom.

This is what you voted for and this is what you got. We entrusted you with the Torch of Liberty, and you traded it for a paycheck and a fancy house.

Well, don't worry youngsters, the Grey-Haired Brigade is here, and in 2016 we are going to take back our nation. We may drive a little slower than you would like, but we get where we're going, and in 2016 we're going to the polls by the millions.

This land does not belong to the man in the White House nor to the likes of Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Eric Holder. It belongs to "We the People," and "We the People" plan to reclaim our land and our freedom. We hope this time you will do a better job of preserving it and passing it along to our grandchildren. So the next time you have the chance to say the Pledge of Allegiance, stand up, put your hand over your heart, honor our country, and thank God for the old geezers of the "Gray-Haired Brigade."

Former Dallas lawyer Dolly Kyle, who says she had a long-running affair with Bill Clinton, has spilled the beans about what she says she knows about the Clintons in a tell-all book and in recent interviews.

Kyle claimed in a recent interview with this reporter that “Billy” Clinton, as she called him, once boasted to her that he had had sex with about 2,000 women. She described Clinton as a “sex addict” who has some “sick, sick need” to “control women.”

“We went through the 25 questions that you ask yourself if you’re a sex addict,” Kyle said. “He absolutely was. Is. He admitted it. This is like an Alcoholics Anonymous or drug-addict thing. You don’t have to go to a counselor to know you’re an alcoholic. You go to an AA meeting, you hear the questions, you know that’s who you are. And then you do something about it. But he’s done nothing about it.”

And perhaps you will recall Democrat Jerry Zeifman, a counsel and chief of staff of the House Judiciary Committee, who supervised Clinton on the Watergate investigation. He stated that she “… engaged in a variety of self-serving unethical practices in violation of House rules.” It is reported that on his now-shuttered website, Zeifman said, “Hillary Clinton is ethically unfit to be either a senator or president — and if she were to become president, the last vestiges of the traditional moral authority of the party of Roosevelt, Truman and Johnson will be destroyed.” …Ellen

Hillary Clinton may or may not be indicted in the State Department emails scandal, but one thing is certain: she’s been to this dance before, facing possible criminal charges. Mrs. Clinton “may have been involved in a crime in 1986,” according to never-before-seen portions of an Office of Independent Counsel (OIC) memorandum in the Whitewater affair obtained by Judicial Watch.

The newly obtained document is an unredacted copy of a highly detailed April 10, 1998 OIC memo prepared for a key meeting to discuss the indictment of Mrs. Clinton. It is titled “Hillary Rodham Clinton: Summary of Evidence and Suggested Reading.”

In January, Judicial Watch published a redacted version of the memo obtained from the National Archives and Records Administration under the Freedom of Information Act.

Today, the new, unredacted version of the memo—reported exclusively by Breitbart—fills in important blanks in the criminal case against Mrs. Clinton.

The entire text of the memo can now be pieced together from the redacted version released by the National Archives and the new, unredacted version, reported here for the first time.

The broad contours of the Whitewater case against Mrs. Clinton are well known. With Governor Bill Clinton running Arkansas, Mrs. Clinton leveraged her work at the Rose Law Firm into a series of transactions on behalf of a corrupt financial institution, Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan, run by a longtime Clinton crony, James McDougal. Among the transactions was a document drafted by Mrs. Clinton to conceal a series of fraudulent loans that were used to deceive federal bank examiners.

The fraudulent loans were part of a land deal known as Castle Grande. Mrs. Clinton, along with her Rose Law Firm partner Webster Hubbell—later given a high-ranking post at the Justice Department by President Clinton—handled the Madison Guaranty accounts for law firm. Hubbell’s father-in-law, Seth Ward, also played a key role in the Madison accounts.

A leading Canadian researcher has cautioned young people on the dangers of loud music after new research has shown an alarming level of early hearing damage in teenagers.

Larry Roberts of McMaster University, Canada, worked with a team of researchers from the University of São Paulo School of Medicine, Brazil, to look at early hearing damage in 170 young people aged 11 to 17 year old.

After performing detailed hearing tests and interviewing the group, the team found that nearly all engaged in "risky listening habits" by going to parties, clubs and listening to loud music on personal listening devices, and that more than a quarter (28 percent) were already experiencing persistent tinnitus, a ringing or buzzing in the ears that more commonly affects those over 50.

Although Roberts explained that it's common after listening to loud music to experience a ringing in the ears for the next day or so, this brief and temporary tinnitus is still an early warning sign of vulnerability to the damage that noise exposure can cause, and was found in more than half of the participants.

So should we offer a Cead Mile Failte to Donald Trump, or build a wall to keep him out – and make him pay for it?

Many people in the media here in Ireland have been observing the Trump phenomenon in the U.S. with a mixture of bemusement and disgust. ' How can Americans be so gullible?', the Irish commentariat ask.

The truth is, however, that an Irish version of Trump would probably do very well here.

If an Irish politician had the guts to offer the same kind of populist, simplistic solutions to the complex problems we face, the likelihood is that he or she would hoover up support just like Trump is doing.

Just as in the U.S., many people here are fed up with career politicians, with the established system and the way it is mired in political correctness and constrained by an inability to take decisive action on just about anything.

Last week's news that Trump is coming here at the end of the month caused consternation in some sections of the Irish media. The Donald will be making a flying visit to us, but the alarm in the media here is unlikely to be reflected in the reception he will get among ordinary people.

The usual collection of loony lefties are already making plans to demonstrate and disrupt his visit. If anything, their protests are likely to annoy people here rather than be supported by them – and they certainly won't bother Trump. He's used to it, as we have seen recently.

Newly released State Department emails help reveal how a major Clinton Foundation donor was placed on a sensitive government intelligence advisory board even though he had no obvious experience in the field, a decision that appeared to baffle the department’s professional staff.

The emails further reveal how, after inquiries from ABC News, the Clinton staff sought to “protect the name” of the Secretary, “stall” the ABC News reporter and ultimately accept the resignation of the donor just two days later.

Copies of dozens of internal emails were provided to ABC News by the conservative political group Citizens United, which obtained them under the Freedom of Information Act after more the two years of litigation with the government.

A prolific fundraiser for Democratic candidates and contributor to the Clinton Foundation, who later traveled with Bill Clinton on a trip to Africa, Rajiv K. Fernando’s only known qualification for a seat on the International Security Advisory Board (ISAB) was his technological know-how. The Chicago securities trader, who specialized in electronic investing, sat alongside an august collection of nuclear scientists, former cabinet secretaries and members of Congress to advise Hillary Clinton on the use of tactical nuclear weapons and on other crucial arms control issues.

The death certificate for the father of the controversial Mexican judge confirms that Curiel’s parents were not U.S. citizens when he was born.

Death records from Indiana records confirm that Salvador Curiel died a Mexican citizen in 1964… not as the New York Times’s Alan Rappeport reported in an anti-Donald Trump article.

But Rappeport claimed that the elder Curiel had died a U.S. citizen. He didn’t.

Here’s what Rappeport wrote:

"Judge Curiel, 62, was born in East Chicago, Ind., to parents who had emigrated from Mexico. Raul Curiel said their father, Salvador, arrived in Arizona as a laborer in the 1920s, eventually receiving citizenship and becoming a steelworker. Their parents were married in Mexico in 1946, and their mother, Francisca, became a citizen after joining her husband in the United States."

It seemed highly unlikely initially that the Ocean City Police Department would be able to apprehend anyone involved in the north Ocean City homicide over the Memorial Day weekend.

Due to the late-night nature of the incident, the uncongested site of the fight, the multiple pleas by police for witnesses to come forward with leads and the likelihood intoxication was involved, all indications were it was going to be a difficult case.

The good news is two weeks after the incident a suspect has been charged with manslaughter and second-degree assault for the death of a Maryland man. It will likely remain a difficult case to prosecute as far as securing a manslaughter conviction, but it’s a positive that charges have been filed in the incident and there is a chance at personal culpability after all.

All judgment has to be withheld until the suspect has his day in court, but this on the surface seems to represent fine police work by the investigators involved in the case. It began with so little to go on, but surveillance video and citizen tips combined with some good fortune helped detectives identify a suspect from Baltimore County. Working with Baltimore County police, the suspect’s location was learned and a warrant for his arrest was issued. He turned himself in on Tuesday afternoon in Ocean City and now faces manslaughter and second-degree assault charges.

From pitiful to posh: A stranded pup, found in a vacant Fort Pierce lot, now has a new home thanks to a St. Lucie County deputy.

According to the sheriff's office, deputies were serving civil process paperwork to a home in Fort Pierce a few weeks ago when they heard the plainful sounds of a whimpering dog. During a search of the neighboring empty lot, they found an 8-month-old puppy who had apparently fallen into a collapsed septic drain.

They pulled the frightened and exhausted pup out of the hole and gave him several baths while trying to find his owner. But none of the neighbors had seen him before, and a check at the veterinarian's office revealed he had not been microchipped.

He went home with the deputy who found him, and now answers to the name 'Puddles.'

After a three-month investigation, state police have arrested a 21-year-old man on suspicion of voter fraud in the Española city election that saw an incumbent councilor lose his seat by two votes.

The defendant is Dyon Herrera, who was a campaign volunteer for now-Councilor Robert Seeds. Seeds defeated former Councilor Cory Lewis 238 to 236 in the March election. What stood out was that Seeds received 94 votes by absentee ballot — two times more than the combined total of seven other candidates for City Council seats. Lewis received 10 votes by absentee ballot.

Herrera is charged with two counts of falsifying signatures on two absentee ballots and one count of falsifying a signature on an application for an absentee ballot. All are fourth-degree felonies.

The state police investigation found that “there were absentee ballots which had discrepancies in the signatures,” though investigators did not say how many or whether all the fraudsters could be identified.

Lewis also investigated for a civil suit he filed challenging the election results. After reviewing the absentee ballot envelopes, which voters must sign, Lewis’ lawyer identified 23 voters who may not have signed the envelopes for absentee ballots submitted in their name. “Somebody other than the actual voter signed those,” Lewis said. “I think it’s safe to say one person did several of them.”

Just to recap: Voter fraud does exist, it can and does change the outcome of elections, and people are willing to risk felony charges to commit voter fraud.

WASHINGTON, DC – Senator Dan Coats (R-Ind.), the chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, joined a group of 46 senators to introduce a resolution under the Congressional Review Act that would block implementation of the administration’s “Time Card Rule,” also known as the Overtime Rule. This rule will force workers to log hours and limit their ability to negotiate a flexible work arrangement. It also will cost many colleges millions of dollars per year in additional operating costs, potentially raising tuition for college students.

“This overtime rule is unlikely to result in many employees seeing larger paychecks but could instead cut benefits and wages for workers,” said Coats. “Once again, the Obama Administration is overreaching with broad new regulations on employers by requiring them to devote precious resources to costly regulatory compliance.”

In 2015, the Department of Labor released a proposal to increase the salary threshold under which employees qualify for overtime pay. The department’s final rule, released last week, more than doubles that salary threshold from $23,660 to $47,476 and will result in students facing higher tuition costs and workers having less flexibility and opportunity for advancement in the workplace.

If passed, the resolution would nullify the administration’s final rule and prohibit the administration from issuing a substantially similar rule without congressional approval.

According DHS status indicators, over 193,000 criminal aliens have been booked into local Texas jails between June 1, 2011 and May 31, 2016. During their criminal careers, these criminal aliens were charged with more than 514,000 criminal offenses. Those arrests include 1,028 homicide charges; 61,057 assault charges; 15,181 burglary charges; 60,726 drug charges; 618 kidnapping charges; 37,230 theft charges; 40,498 obstructing police charges; 3,417 robbery charges; 5,370 sexual assault charges; and 7,706 weapons charges. Of the total criminal aliens arrested in that timeframe, over 128,000 or 66% were identified by DHS status as being in the US illegally at the time of their last arrest.

According to DPS criminal history records, those criminal charges have thus far resulted in over 231,000 convictions including 428 homicide convictions; 22,796 assault convictions; 7,379 burglary convictions; 30,109 drug convictions; 215 kidnapping convictions; 16,776 theft convictions; 19,943 obstructing police convictions; 1,727 robbery convictions; 2,444 sexual assault convictions; and 3,234 weapons convictions. Of the convictions associated with criminal alien arrests, over 153,000 or 66% are associated with aliens who were identified by DHS status as being in the US illegally at the time of their last arrest.

Note: These are Texas charges for these criminal alien arrestees as reported to DPS by local agencies – the arrestees charted here may have offenses in other states. Texas arrestees who have not had interaction with the DHS which resulted in the collection of fingerprints are not included as their identity cannot be biometrically verified by DHS.

Newt Gingrich Friday said the news that a key Clinton Foundation donor and Chicago financier, Rajiv Fernando, on a board advising then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the use of tactical nuclear weapons is "even more significant" than a probe showing her private emails had details about drone strikes.

"He was appointed to the group, which has the most sensitive secrets because it looks at Pakistan, North Korea, Russia," the former House speaker told Fox News' "Fox and Friends" program. "Clinton, in effect, sold a seat on a nuclear weapons advisory group to a financier from Chicago who had no technical knowledge."

According to ABC News, which broke the story, the State Department has recently released emails showing that Chicago securities trader Fernando was included along with nuclear scientists, former cabinet secretaries, and Congressional lawmakers on the International Security Advisory Board, even though his specialty was in electronic investing. He also later traveled with former President Bill Clinton to Africa, the report said.

"It's very clear this is pure corruption," Gingrich said. "This was cash for a seat on a board. The guy wanted something prestigious. She thought 'what the heck, it has the biggest secrets I trust him, why don't you trust him?' The story that ABC has is pretty startling and the internal memos of the State Department in response to this are amazing in which all of the professionals are saying 'I don't know why he's on the board. He shouldn't be there.'"

Commissioner makes stunning announcement of how program is losing nearly half a billion dollars annually to fraud!

In a letter Wednesday, top Republican Ajit Pai of the Federal Communications Commission expressed concern about the JCC’s Universal Service Fund, a program that provides a $9.95 monthly subsidy for telecom service to low-income people. The program’s website states, “More than 20 million Americans have already received a free Obama Phone and get 250 free cell phone minutes every month.”

The program is supposed to be limited to one phone “per independent economic household.” However, that restriction can be overridden if applicants simply check a box stating that they represent a “different household”, even if they have the same address.

Newsmax Finance Insider Larry Kudlow is fed up with the way global central banks have been trying to revive the economy.

Nothing they have done has worked. So there’s really only one option left, he told CNBC.

“Overthrow the establishment. Now's the time,” said the CNBC senior contributor who also hosts a syndicated radio-talk show. "Overthrow the establishment," urged Kudlow, who was a former economic adviser to President Ronald Reagan.

“We need a different model. In other words, zero interest rates, or negative interest rates, and tons and tons of government spending for all these G-7 countries have not worked,” he said.

“We have global stagnation, a virtual global recession. And we have virtually no inflation,” he said “Something's got to change here,” he said.

He offered his own solution to right the sinking U.S. economic ship.

“I recommend an across-the-board slashing of corporate tax rates for large and small businesses in the U.S. I would start right there to reignite growth and then give the Fed a chance to normalize their interest rates," he said.

"I do not approve of what the Fed or these other central banks are doing. I have never favored it, QE, negative rates even worse. The trick is how to get out of this with minimal damage. Let's cut the corporate tax, that will pick up business investment and it will pick up productivity,” he said.

"I think one of the candidates, Donald Trump, has a very significant business tax cut for large and small companies. And I favor that. He also is a de-regulator, and I favor that,” he said.

Dozens of mentally ill men and women who have been charged with crimes are languishing in jails across Maryland despite court orders to send them to state hospitals for evaluation and treatment.

The state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which spurned a consultant's warning four years ago, does not have enough beds or staff to treat new patients, officials say. The shortage comes as 80 percent of those admitted to such facilities are arriving via the criminal justice system.

Union officials blame the shortages on what they call the state's cost-saving policy of pushing care of the mentally ill into the private sector.

The state's psychiatric inpatient capacity declined from about 3,000 beds in the 1980s to about 960 now, a squeeze the state's top health official calls a crisis.

SALISBURY, Md. (June 11, 2016) – The summer storm season is in progress and brought storm-related power outages to parts of our service territory earlier this week. We are monitoring additional storms this weekend that could damage the electric system and we advise customers to be prepared for the possibility of service interruptions.

The company has about 200 internal linemen and 90 contractors including tree-trimming personnel assigned to the system. Should Delmarva Power need assistance, we can draw upon resources from our family of companies including those from Baltimore Gas & Electric, PECO in Philadelphia and ComEd in Chicago.

While Delmarva Power is preparing for the storms, the company also reminds customers to be ready for the possibility of outages.

Delmarva Power encourages customers to assemble an emergency kit that can be used at home and, if necessary, taken with them if they’re ordered to evacuate. Each kit should include a flashlight, battery-powered clock and radio, extra batteries, non-perishable food, manual can opener, bottled water and a list of important phone numbers. All items can be placed into a large cooler which is easy to grab if a person has to leave home quickly.

Customers are asked to please report any outages and to stay away from any downed wires. To report outages and/or downed wires, please call 1-800-375-7117, follow the prompts and please ask for a call back to confirm that power has been restored. Outages also may be reported through www.delmarva.com or the company’s mobile app which is available at www.delmarva.com/mobileapp.

WASHINGTON — It’s a minimum wage battle that many people might not be hearing much about. Since exotic dancers consider themselves employees as part of the adult entertainment industry, they have filed lawsuits to get at least minimum wage.

In the latest case, a U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a previous ruling Wednesday that exotic dancers from two strip clubs in Prince George’s County, Maryland, were employees of the club, not independent contractors as the defending strip clubs claimed.

The plaintiffs in the case say that the strip clubs where they worked failed to give them a paycheck and had not given an hourly wage — instead, their earnings were limited to “performance fees” and direct tips from patrons. They claimed that the clubs failed to pay them the minimum wage that is required by federal law in the Fair Labor Standards Act and Maryland state law.

The Ocean City Council on Monday passed an emergency ordinance that amends the city code’s definition of “electronic personal assistive mobility devices” (EPAMDs) to explicitly ban the device.

The Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration created the definition for electronically powered vehicles with two wheels that travel up to 15 miles per hour. City officials use that definition in the code to allow Segways on the Boardwalk from 11 a.m. until 2 a.m. on any day from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

That loose definition allowed Hoverboards on the Boardwalk, which the council considers a pedestrian walkway, during those same hours. While the council voted to prohibit the devices in January, visitors were seen riding them over the weekend.

OCEAN CITY — A downtown package goods store employee suffered a rough couple of days this week with an armed robbery and a theft involving a fight in the span of two days.

Around 11:40 a.m. on Monday, Ocean City Police responded to a reported armed robbery at the 9th Street Market. Officers arrived and located the victim, the store’s clerk, standing outside the store. The victim told police he was behind the counter at the cash register when an African-American male around 6’ tall and about 30 years old wearing khaki shorts entered the store.

The victim told police the suspect, later identified as Aubrey Stone, 33, of New Castle, Del., entered the store. According to the victim, Stone produced a silver box cutter-style knife, came behind the counter and said to the victim “I’m not going to hurt you,” and “give me all of the money.”

The victim opened the cash register and the suspect took all of the money totaling around $341 along with a pack of Newport cigarettes. A description of the suspect was broadcast via police radio and Stone was located a short time later on the Boardwalk just north of the pier. The victim was brought over and positively identified Stone as the armed robber. About $350 in cash and an unopened pack of Newport cigarettes were found on Stone’s person.

Steve Mason, left, past state commander for the Department of Maryland VFW, William “Doc” Schmitz, investigator general for the National VFW, and Tom Kimball, from VFW #194 in Salisbury, want to assure veterans have a peer group to support their transition back to civilian life.

With the thunderous roar of 175 motorcycles announcing their arrival on Tuesday, the Maryland Wounded Warriors Program brought three busloads of veterans to Ocean City this week for three days of relaxation and bonding.

Since 2006, the Department of Maryland Veterans of Foreign Wars has brought a multitude of soldiers from nearby military medical and treatment centers for a tranquil visit to the shore.

Tom Kimball, from VFW #194 in Salisbury, is chairman of the Maryland Wounded Warriors program. He said since so many veterans deserve a break that it can be challenging to be equitable.

“Some want to come back every year, but I try to get new faces in,” he said.

With help from the Hogs and Heroes Foundation Maryland Chapter 8, who were escorted by the Maryland State Police and the Wicomico Sheriff’s Office, the veterans received a hero’s welcome. They also were treated to a catered feast upon their arrival at the Princess Royale Hotel uptown on Coastal Highway.

BERLIN – A familiar Berlin shop marks half a century of charitable service in the historic town this year.

The Church Mouse, the thrift shop operated by St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on Main Street, celebrated its 50th anniversary May 26.

“We’re hoping to go on for the next 50 years,” said Helen Wiley, the shop’s coordinator.

The Church Mouse has been a Berlin institution since it was launched in the mid-1960s. Wiley says the shop got off the ground through the leadership of Violet Mathews, better known as Miss Vi, and her daughter, Ruth Neville. Annabelle Hastings was the other key force behind the Church Mouse.

“Those three ladies planted the seed,” said Wiley, who herself has been giving her time to the Church Mouse for nearly a decade. “We like to say we’re the water to continue the outreach to the community.”

The shop was originally located in space at the Atlantic Hotel before being relocated to a warehouse near Cheers.

A Chinese fighter jet conducted an unsafe intercept of a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft over the East China Sea this week in the latest showdown between China and the United States over the American military presence in the region, U.S. officials said.

The incident Tuesday took place over the East China Sea and the Pentagon in its statement avoided criticizing the Chinese military for flying one of its warplanes dangerously close to a U.S. RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft.

“U.S. Pacific Command has reviewed the details of an intercept of a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft, a U.S. Air Force RC-135, on a routine patrol by two Chinese jets, J-10s, that occurred on June 7 in international airspace, over the East China Sea,” said Cmdr. David Benham, spokesman for the command.

“One of the intercepting Chinese jets had an unsafe excessive rate of closure on the RC-135 aircraft,” he said. “Initial assessment is that this seems to be a case of improper airmanship, as no other provocative or unsafe maneuvers occurred.”

Cmdr. Benham said the Pentagon is “addressing the issue with China in appropriate diplomatic and military channels.”

China, as it has done in the past, denied its pilot acted recklessly.

Tuesday’s encounter followed a similar dangerous intercept over the South China Sea May 19, when a Chinese J-11 flew with 50 feet of an EP-3 reconnaissance aircraft near Hainan Island, causing the EP-3 pilot to make a sharp maneuver to avoid a collision. The recent encounters appear to undermine the 2014 memorandum of understanding between China and the United States to take steps to avoid such dangerous aerial encounters.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Friday called for the United States to strengthen its alliance with Israel.

Speaking to Evangelical voters in Washington, Trump said, “We all have to deal with the threat of Islamic extremism and ensure the security of Israel.”

“We must continue to strengthen our friendship with Israel,” he added. “We must act to ensure Israel’s continued security.”

He also attacked his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and said that she was being “weak” on Islamist terrorists.

The real estate mogul said Clinton's refusal to use the phrase "radical Islamic terrorism" makes her unfit to be president, according to remarks quoted by Reuters.

He criticized Clinton's willingness to accept thousands of refugees from the Syrian civil war into the United States and challenged her to "replace her support for increased refugee admission" in favor of a new jobs program for inner cities.

When local businessman Steve Pfeiffer decided to support presidential nominee Donald Trump publically, he knew there would be some backlash.

Since the Harbourside Refrigeration owner decided to put the slogan “Trump 2016 make America great again,” on his letter board that faces Coastal Highway, the sign has been vandalized roughly six times.

“There’s some haters out there. They’re taking the letters off the board, maybe throwing them out in trash cans further up the road,” said Pfeiffer. “I just bought new letters, so I have a bunch. But I’m slowly working my way through them.”

Presently, Harbourside Refrigeration is the only business along the highway that makes its political stance clear to those on the street. Pfeiffer decided to throw his – and his business’s – support behind the Republican candidate publically roughly around the time of the Maryland primary election last April.

Most of us eat chicken at least once a week, if not more. Chickens have been around as long as people have been on the Eastern Shore. The difference is in how we grow them now. A hundred years ago there were chickens running around every farm. I think they are referred to nowadays as “free range chickens”. They used to just let them eat grass, bugs and whatever else met their fancy. Some of the females were kept housed for their egg production but every other chicken was subject to find himself on the business end of an ax and wind up in the frying pan.As early as the 1800’s, there were attempts by farmers to grow a meat-type bird that could be marketed at a young, tender age. These efforts were generally short-lived and met with little success.In the year of 1923, Mrs. Wilmer Steele of Ocean View, Delaware grew 500 broilers along with her laying stock. At sixteen weeks of age, these broilers weighed 2 ¼ pounds and sold for 62 cents a pound. The following year, Mrs. Steele grew one thousand broilers and made a profit. This was the start and the birthplace of our gigantic broiler industry as we know it today. Folks on Delmarva said look what Mrs. Steele has started. More chicken houses were built, more profits were realized, higher standards of living were enjoyed along with social growth. By 1935, Delmarva was already growing the fantastic number of 10,000,000 broilers per year.Comparing broiler production today with that of 1927 is like comparing apples to oranges. In 1927, 16 weeks and 12 pounds of feed were needed to produce a 2 ¼ pound chicken. In 1965, a 4 pound bird could be had in 9 weeks with only 8 or 9 pounds of feed. The improvements can be attributed to the many phases of science – genetics, nutrition, disease control, housing and management.In the beginning of the industry, broilers were the by-products of the market egg industry when cockerels were separated from the Barred Plymouth Rock pullets being raised for egg production. Later, these Barred Rocks were crossed with New Hampshires to give us the Red Rock cross. The raising of the birds was now directed by modern science. The feed had additives to insure more meat production and less disease. In the beginning, broiler producers lost 15-20 % of the flock before they were large enough to go to market. Now they raise nearly 100 % to maturity due to the improved production methods now used. In 1927, it took 16 weeks to produce a 2 ¼ lb. broiler with a feed conversion of 5 lbs. of feed to produce 1 lb. of live weight. By 1957, it took only 10 weeks to produce a 3 ½ lb. broiler with a feed conversion of 2 ½ lbs. of feed to produce 1 lb. of live weight. By 1965, many growers were producing a 4 lb, broiler in 9 weeks on a feed conversion of approximately 2 lbs. of feed per pound of meat.That was 47 years ago. How much progress have we made since then? Two things are certain – chicken is one of the more moderately priced meats at the grocery store and we certainly eat a lot of it.

OCEAN CITY — A Pennsylvania man faces a slew of charges this month after his girlfriend was injured while attempting to get out of a moving vehicle during an argument over his alleged past cheating.

Shortly after midnight on Tuesday, OCPD officers responded to a motel on 27th Street to check on the welfare of a female victim. The officers arrived and located a female victim standing with the security guard. The victim upper and lower lips were swollen with lacerations and she had abrasions on her ankle and hand. The victim told police she had been assaulted by her boyfriend, identified as Christopher Clarke, 27, of East Stroudsberg, Pa.

The victim said she and Clarke had been out to dinner at a midtown restaurant when they began arguing over his alleged past cheating. The argument continued as the couple left the restaurant and went to a nearby 7-11 convenience store. The victim told police Clarke grabbed the back of her head and hair and pushed her head into her knee.

According to police reports, the victim was scared and attempted to leave the vehicle. As she was trying to exit the vehicle, Clarke allegedly put it in reverse and backed up, preventing her from getting out. The victim said she fell and hit her face on the parking lot. The officer observed the victim’s front left tooth was chipped along with the other injuries already observed.

After two weeks of recovery, Meg McCready was released on Tuesday from HealthSouth Chesapeake Rehabilitation Hospital in Salisbury following her recovery from an accident when she and her boyfriend, Carl Echols, were run over in the Stephen Decatur High School parking lot on the morning of May 23.

“We are both recovering still and there are things that will take a while, but we are getting there,” McCready said. “There is incredible support flooding from everyone involved. It’s certainly a huge help.”

The accident has made McCready appreciate her friends and family more than ever, which she calls a “blessing in disguise” because it has also strengthened her faith.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Prosecutors in O.J. Simpson’s 1994 murder trial didn’t know that he had been taking arthritis medication before trying on the famous ill-fitting bloody glove, former Los Angeles County District Attorney Gil Garcetti said Thursday.

Garcetti, who led the prosecutor’s office during the trial, told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that he learned about the medication from watching the new ESPN documentary: “O.J.: Made in America.”

“What we didn’t know until I saw it on this film was that O.J. Simpson was taking arthritic medication for his hands and he was told, ‘If you stop taking this arthritic medication, your hands will swell. Your joints will stiffen,'” Garcetti said. “My God.”

Simpson was acquitted of murder charges for the death of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman. A key moment came when prosecutors had Simpson try on a bloody glove found at his house and it appeared to be too small.

Narrative: On 6/11/16 at approximately 0050 hours, the Maryland State Police responded to 1401 Atlantic Ave, Ocean City, Worcester County in regards to locating a motorcycle that had fled from a traffic stop a short time earlier at the intersection of Coastal Highway at 21st Street.

The vehicle was identified as a maroon Yamaha motorcycle displaying MD registration 21132Y. The operator was identified as Brian Prospere David Jr., 24 yoa of Upper Marlboro, MD. A registration check revealed the registration plates displayed on the motorcycle were reported stolen through the Prince George's County Police Department. A VIN check on the motorcycle revealed that it was reported stolen through the Fairfax County Police Department in Virginia. David was subsequently arrested.

A search of David's backpack revealed 7.5 grams of marijuana, a digital scale and a loaded Smith and Wesson 9mm handgun model# SD9VE. The handgun was loaded with seven rounds of 9mm Luger ammunition. The serial number to the handgun had been removed. The Maryland Gun Center was notified. David was found to be prohibited from possessing a firearm due to an active protective order against him and active warrants through Prince George's County and Colonial Heights, VA.

David was charged with handgun on person, handgun in vehicle, illegal possession of ammunition, illegal possession of regulated firearm, altering ID number of a handgun, motor vehicle theft and theft under $100. David was transported to the Ocean City Commissioner.

The disposition was not available at the time this press release was sent.

WASHINGTON — A Montgomery County 19-year-old will spend four years behind bars for his role in a June 2015 crash that killed two Wootton High School graduates, and brought new legislation regarding underage drinking parties.

After an hourslong and emotional hearing, Samuel Ellis, a 19-year-old Gaithersburg resident, was sentenced to four years in a state prison — two years for each of the students who were killed in the crash that happened after the group attended a North Potomac underage drinking party. Another 16 years of prison time was suspended by the judge. In April, Ellis pleaded guilty to charges of vehicular manslaughter.

Ellis had been painted as a callous and selfish teen by the prosecutor, Assistant State’s Attorney Mark Anderson, who quoted a jailhouse conversation in which Ellis said, “If it weren’t for this bullsh**t, I’d be having a lit time at the beach.”

SILVER SPRING, Md. — Millions of dollars are flowing into two Maryland counties as a result of the Pepco-Exelon merger.

“Pepco and Exelon recently contributed $25 million to Prince George’s and Montgomery counties as part of our merger commitments,” Pepco President and CEO Dave Velazquez announced Thursday at a news conference in Silver Spring, Maryland.

The money will go toward promoting investment in areas like solar energy, clean transportation and retrofitting buildings to make them more energy efficient.

Prince George’s County Executive Rushern Baker described other ways the money will be used: “A program to help our workforce development … and that is the next generation of jobs that are going to be created. So we’re very pleased with that.”More

Overshadowed by President Barack Obama’s full-throated endorsement of Hillary Clinton, former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley on Thursday also announced his support for the former secretary of state.

“For the future of the country we carry in our hearts, I am committing my energies to the election of Secretary Clinton as the next President of the United States,” O’Malley said in a statement. “Democrats, Independents and Republicans alike must come together to confront the fascist threat to our democracy presented by Donald Trump.”

O’Malley, who suspended his campaign in February following a dismal showing in the Iowa caucuses, congratulated Clinton on winning a “hard-fought nomination process” while also crediting Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders “for waging an exciting campaign focused on important progressive issues about which so many of us care so deeply.”More

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — Police say a woman died Wednesday after strong winds blew an anchored umbrella into her chest at the Oceanfront.

Police have identified the woman as 55-year-old Lottie Michelle Belk, of Chester, Virginia.

According to authorities, dispatchers received an emergency call around 5:07 p.m. for a woman in cardiac arrest on the 33rd Street beach.

“That was so freakish. We’ve never heard of anything like that,” said Barbara Seldomridge, who says the winds knocked over umbrellas all day Wednesday. “As they were flying, everyone was trying to catch them to help the individual get their umbrellas back to their specific area.”

A 9-month-old boy in Phoenix received second-degree burns over 30 percent of his body on Tuesday after being hit by extremely hot spray from a garden hose as his mother tried to fill up a small wading pool.

Dominique Woodger told Phoenix TV station KNXV that she didn’t realize when she turned on the faucet that the water was so hot.

Her son, who was sitting nearby, was hit by the scalding spray, she said.

“I thought he was crying because he was mad … he hates when he gets sprayed in the face,” Woodger said. “I didn’t think that it was burning him.”

A smuggling network has managed to sneak illegal immigrants from Middle Eastern terrorism hotbeds straight to the doorstep of the U.S., including helping one Afghan who authorities say was part of an attack plot in North America.

Immigration officials have identified at least a dozen Middle Eastern men smuggled into the Western Hemisphere by a Brazilian-based network that connected them with Mexicans who guided them to the U.S. border, according to internal government documents reviewed by The Washington Times.

Those smuggled included Palestinians, Pakistanis and the Afghan man who Homeland Security officials said had family ties to the Taliban and was “involved in a plot to conduct an attack in the U.S. and/or Canada.” He is in custody, but The Times is withholding his name at the request of law enforcement to protect investigations.More

It’s one thing to accuse a judge of bias. It’s another to refer to a judge — as Donald Trump did to the man presiding over the Trump University cases — as a “Mexican.” The judge, Gonzalo Curiel, happens to have been born in Indiana. But as far as Trump is concerned, this does not make him a Hoosier. Yet as Trump has doubled and tripled down on referring to the judge’s ethnicity as grounds for bias, his lawyers have, at least so far, not filed a motion for recusal.

Trump should ask his critics why the silence over Judge and now-Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s comments on the role of race and ethnicity in how judges reach decisions. In speeches before she became a Supreme Court justice, Sotomayor said, “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.” She also said, “Whether born from experience or inherent physiological or cultural differences … our gender and national origins may and will (emphasis added) make a difference in our judging.”

Trump is angry at a particular judge. But Sotomayor made a flat-out assertion that whites, blacks, Hispanics and women not only may, but will, make rulings according their sex, race and ethnicity — whatever that means. How is this any less bigoted than Trump calling out Curiel because he’s “Mexican”?

An apology could be companied with a trademark attack on the media. After all, Trump could say, the media did not hyperventilate over then-presidential candidate Barack Obama’s association with his bigoted pastor. Yet Trump could argue that when a Trump statement is perceived as bigoted, out come the axes. That is a legitimate double-standard argument to make, and Trump could have and should have made it. Instead he’s off topic, wasting time and losing support.

Man up, Mr. Trump. Apologize. Then bring up Sotomayor. Ask why the double standard and the selective outrage. But going after Curiel is not the hill to die on.More